Thanksgiving Sickness

It happens every year. Either I'm sick on Thanksgiving or Christmas. This year it's Thanksgiving apparently. I've had a nasty cough for 6 days now that just won't go away! It's really not fun. I was supposed to go to some friend's house for a day-before-Thanksgiving celebration today, but I ended up staying home with Danielle and Jonathan.

So, here I am, sitting in the family room, while Jonathan is in his room talking on the phone with a friend, and Danielle is napping. Ah, quiet. I love it. I'm watching a new show on Netflix that I've been trying to watch this whole time I've been sick, but it hasn't been working with other kids around using internet. Now they're gone! Yay! Ben's supposed to be coming over in a while, but for now I'm just sitting typing, and there's no sound other than Netflix turned down and the dishwasher going. Quiet. Did I mention I like quiet? ;)

I was supposed to work Monday, but I called in, because I'm working with cut food, and I figured it wasn't a good idea to get everyone sick because I was coughing all over everything. I felt bad about it, because I hate calling in, but you have to do what you have to do. I had yesterday off, and then I worked today. I wanted so badly to call in again, because I'm definitely not feeling better, and may even be feeling worse, but I decided calling in twice in one week was bad, especially since I just put in my two week notice. So, I got myself up at 5:00 and went to work. I was supposed to work from 6 to 2, but I was having a really, really hard time. I was just coughing all over everything and everybody, and it was nonstop, to the point where my sides just started hurting. I was gonna ask if I could leave at 10, when the closer came in, but about 8:50 my manager came in and said I could go ahead and go. I wasn't going to complain! :D So, I made it about 3 out of my 8 hours. Oh well. It was important for me to go home.

I'll probably just end up staying home tomorrow instead of going into Tucson with the rest of the family. That's ok though, I'm used to missing stuff. I've missed our Christmas service at church the last 2 years in a row because of sickness. It would be nice to have time at home by myself. Besides, Jonathan has to work tomorrow, so then he won't be by himself when he comes home. :)

Mom's all into essential oils, and she's been trying to put them on me, but so far they haven't really been helping that much. Although, she did put on a different one today, and I haven't been coughing nearly as much, so maybe it is helping. Who knows. All I know is I feel terrible and want to sleep for the next 4 days. Unfortunately, that's pretty impractical. So, I'll just stay around the house and rest, and hope that I'm feeling better soon.

Hello

Apparently that's the name of an Adele song. I've never actually heard it, but Hannah sings it all the time, and it seemed like a fitting title since it's been so long! I'm very sorry my bloggy-friends for the lack of blogging that's been happening. Life has been a rollercoaster lately, but I've loved every second of it. :)

I suppose I should update you on what's happening! First of all, the biggest thing that's happened to me since my last post is I've started a courtship! His name is Ben, and he makes me the happiest girl alive. I met him at Awana last October. I laugh now, because I honestly didn't want to go. David was invited by some friend's of ours, and came back saying "Mom! We haaaaaave to go! It's so much fun!" So, a few weeks later, we all went. I was debating up until it was time to get into the car as to whether or not I was going to go; I guess I thought it would be little-kiddish or something. I didn't realize that it was going to be age-segregated, and that there were other high-schoolers there too. Ben was one of them. He started talking to me that very first night, which was super nice, because I'm not a super social person, so to have someone who made me feel welcome right off the bat was huge. :) We gradually started talking more and more, and started texting in April. We had invited their family to our church's annual picnic in the park, and so we started messaging on Facebook to coordinate that. We kept talking, and started hanging out, always having one of my siblings around. We'd go to Dairy Queen, to the park, to the movies... Wherever we felt like it. Then, in July we officially started courting! They've been the happiest 4 months of my life. He makes me feel so special, tells me constantly that I'm beautiful even without makeup (which I NEVER would have believed), and constantly goes out of his way to help me. He really is amazing, and I don't know what I'd do without him. :)

Another thing is I quit my job! I'm technically still working there, since I just put in my two week notice last Wednesday, but I have officially quit. I used to have so much fun at my job, and I absolutely loved it, but now there's new management there, and ever since they came it's just been miserable. I constantly feel like I'm walking on eggshells, and I'm always worrying about what I'm gonna do to make them mad next. So, I decided to be done. Not for my sake, because I'm pretty sure they won't be there too much longer, but because it was affecting everything else. I'd go to work, it would be stressful, then I'd come home stressed, which would stress everyone else out... It just wasn't working. So, for now, I'm going to go back to doing the blankets for awhile. :)

Let's see.. What else has been going on? Well, Ben and I graduated from Awana last year (even though I was only in it for like half a year haha), but we both went back this year to help as Journey leaders. Yes, Journey, a.k.a. the high school age. I wanted to help with Cubbies, which are the toddlers, but they put us in Journey. I was hesitant, but decided to give it a try, and it ended up not being too bad. I was worried about how the other kids would respond to me and Ben, since we were just a little bit older than them, and most of them we knew and hung out with outside of Awana, but they actually respond pretty well, which is good. I'm pretty happy I stayed in Journey now. :)

We're also going to youth group on Wednesday nights, which is super fun. Ben invited me there back in January I think, but I wasn't allowed to actually start going on a weekly basis until April I think, and Hannah and Jonathan started coming too. Now Jonathan doesn't go most weeks because he's working, but Hannah and I are still there every week. We used to have a really big group, but then school started and we got new youth group leaders, and now it's just 7 of us on a weekly basis, which I actually like better. It feels more personal, plus we've been able to go and do things like going to Sierra Vista to see War Room, or going up to Phoenix for Winter Jam. It's just overall way better. I mean, I do miss our old leader, and being able to play kickball (you can't really do that with only 7 people haha), or all those other games that require several people to play, but I'm learning to like this new form of youth group.

Mikala came to visit last week, which was fun. It was really short notice, so I wasn't able to get any time off work, but we still were able to go bowling, to the movies twice, to do a photoshoot, to go shooting at Ben's house, and stuff like that :) It was really nice for her to be able to meet and get to know Ben, and they got along really well, which was nice, even though sometimes I felt like I was the third wheel instead of Mikala haha. :)

Hmm, what else is there? Well, I still haven't finished my math. I just lost all motivation to do it, especially after long day's at work. But, I've determined that I'm going to actually buckle down and get it done, even if I really don't want to. And now that I'm not going to be at Safeway anymore, I'll have a bit more time for it. :)
Alright, I think that's it for tonight. I've been babysitting while the rest of the family is in Tucson, but now the little kids are asleep, and I'm really sick, so I need to get to bed. Goodnight all!

Saturday morning

It's Saturday morning. 8:30 am. I'm currently sitting in my bed, with my Frozen pajamas on, listening to both the Wicked soundtrack and Anthem Lights, while eating the rest of my Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I'm kind of feeling like a failure as a human being. :D

The past two months have been kind of up and down. The one majorly awesome thing is that in just over two weeks I'm going to see my BEST FRIEND EVER!!! I'm flying to Oklahoma to go see Mikala, and I'm so excited about it. I haven't seen her in about 5 years. My plane ticket is bought, my money is saved, and today I'm going to start making a list of stuff to bring with me. I don't remember the last time I was this excited about something!!! I'll leave Monday, the 16th, and come back Tuesday the 24th. We're planning to do SO much stuff while I'm there. Laser tag, a photoshoot, a nice dinner just the two of us, bowling, maybe making a music video.. You think of it, we're probably planning on doing it. :D Like AAAAAHHHHHHHH! I am so freaking excited!!!

Work has been pretty good, although kind of weird. My favorite manager left, which was pretty depressing. They sent him to another store. Everybody thought that we were going to hate the new lady that came in, but actually, everybody loves her. Like she's awesome. I was really worried that because the store manager left, that then my Starbucks manager, who I absolutely adore, would leave. She adored the store manager, and after we found out he was leaving, she was very seriously talking about leaving. But now that this lady is here, and Laura likes her a lot, I think she's going to stay. Thank goodness, because right now it's basically only me and her in Starbucks. There are 5 of us working there right now, but three are in school, so they can only work from 4:30-8:30 during the week and on the weekends. Which leaves just me and Laura, because 2 people just left, including the person that gets the most hours other than Laura. So basically Monday through Friday it's just the two of us during the day, meaning we both have to work every day, and if one of us gets sick... The other one is literally going to have to work an 11 hour shift. So super not fun. The good thing is that a new girl has been hired, but she's not trained yet. She's going to finish her computer training this weekend, and then Laura and I can start training her this week. Yay! Especially since both me and one of the guys are going to be gone the same week, and neither of us will be able to work.

Let's see. What else has been happening? I'm still doing music lessons, which is awesome. My grandma takes me these days, because Dad's in the middle of training someone, so I can't go with him for the time being. I love getting to hang out with Nana. It's been especially fun these past couple of months, because Aunt Suzie (you know, the one that I went to Las Vegas with last year) is visiting again, and the three of us have quite a lot of fun together. :) We've been going out to lunch every week, which is interesting, because Aunt Suzie knows the names of like none of the restaurants out here. So she tries to tell us where she wants to go, and since she doesn't know the name, she just describes it, which really doesn't help much. The funniest one was Five Guys, which she kept calling Five Brothers. Every time I'd say "Aunt Suzie, it's not Five Brothers it's Five Guys." And what'd she tell me every time? "Well aren't they brothers yet!" :D She is one of the funniest people I know. :)

Alright, I probably should sign off now. My ice cream is gone now, and I have to go to the store, which means I probably should get out of bed and get dressed. I will get around to doing the 105 in 2015, I just haven't yet. :)

2015...

And.... It's 2015 already. Like, when did that happen? It seems like just yesterday was the beginning of 2014. Overall, it was a great year. I got an awesome job, where I've met lots of awesome people, I went on an amazing trip with some of my favorite people ever, I (mostly) finished school, and overall just plain had a lot of fun. 

First, let me talk about work. Right now, it's going great. I was having a hard time for awhile with certain aspects of it, but things have finally seemed to iron themselves out. I was doing 100% Starbucks, but now I'm doing one or two courtesy clerk/cashier shifts a week, which I love. I mean, Starbucks is fun, but I was getting tired of doing the same thing every day, especially when I knew how to do other departments. I really want to be trained for both deli and produce, but you have to be 18 for that, so I can't do those quite yet. I might even ask to be trained for office.  I don't know about that. Right now there's an opportunity for someone to train for office, and I'm still trying to decide whether I want to talk to someone about it or not. I definitely don't want to do office full time, but I'd like to be trained in as many departments as possible. Who knows what I'll do... 

I'm still doing music lessons. I decided to continue doing violin with my teacher, but since I can't do them at the music school anymore, I'm doing them privately, which I actually like better. They're going pretty well, although as I'm getting into more complicated songs and techniques, I'm having a harder time. Miss Anna is super patient with me though, which is great! Voice is going great, thank goodness. Sometimes I wonder why Mr. Addleman hasn't kicked me out of his office yet, but he hasn't, so I keep going every week. :D 

Through work I met this super nice lady, Letty, who is a Christain, homeschooling mom. She's super nice, and when she found out I did violin, asked if I could teach her 11-year-old daughter Renee. I said that I could definitely get her started. So, I have a violin student! :D She's a super fast learner, which is really nice. We haven't been doing lessons since about Thanksgiving because of an issue with her violin, but it's been super fun. The amazingly awesome plus is that in exchange for doing lessons, Letty brings me food sometimes for my lunch breaks. And let me tell you, Letty makes AWESOME tacos. And burgers. And burritos. And bacon-wrapped hot dogs....

I've been taking a break from my Etsy orders for awhile. It was just getting way too hard to go to work for 8 hours, and then have to deal with the stress of 15 orders when I get home. I'm still doing blankets, but they're mainly ones that I already have done. Plus, it's given me plenty of opportunities to finish up blankets, like one for Hannah I've been working on for about 3 years. Yeah. 3 years. I also got to finish up one for Annbeth, and I gave them both their blankets for Christmas. Now I'm working on one for a friend from work, and another one for my uncle, who has cancer. 

Let's see... What else has been happening? Well, Jonathan just turned 16, and has his permit. Hannah has been playing cello in the Willcox Middle School Orchestra, which she loves, and is great at. Oh, and Danielle will be 2 on the 17th. 2. I can't believe it. She talks up a storm. She knows Mom, Dad, apple, bye, hi, what (like she'll pick up a toy phone, and say "Hi. What? Bye."), stop, up, down, help (although that sounds more like hep), and a bunch more. It's absolutely adorable. Oh yeah, and uh oh. She loves that one. :) Her favorite thing is a tv show called Hi-5. It's all songs and dances, and she totally will do them. She knows most of the dances perfectly (for a 2 year old), and if we were to start singing them, without the show even being on, she'll start dancing. I can't believe how fast she's growing up. 

I'm trying to decide whether I should do a "105 in 2015" like I did in 2013. It was kinda fun. What do you guys think?

Ok, I think that's all for right now. I think I'm gonna try and do at least one post a week. More would be better, but we'll see what happens. :)